"When the hand and the brain learn to talk to each other intimately and in harmony, something of the sublime in man, which we call autonomy, begins to consolidate".

Dr. Frank Wilson, 1998

At the heart of Waldorf education is the need to support the developing child towards balanced and healthy growth. To enable this, we must nurture all areas of the child's being: the physical, the emotional, social and the intellectual.

The faculty of the Oded school has chosen to study the contribution of "hands-on" work to the child's development, and to develop a "Work-Based Pedagogy" that can strengthen and support educational endeavors. In order to implement this vision, the school joined the Experimental Division of the Israeli Ministry of Education, and was recognized as an Experimental School.

Our experimental question concerns the contribution of this "Hands-on, Work –Based" learning process to each child's physical, emotional, social and intellectual development, as well as its effect on the whole class as a social group, on school spirit, and on the community.

For the purpose of the experiment we developed a number of activity centers in the school where working and productive learning takes place. Teachers observe the activities, modify them and studying the various possibilities that work such as this can offer in order to implement the curriculum correctly. We intend to offer the results of our research to all interested schools.